The Weekly Crisis vs. Solicits for December 2011

DC's reboot has begun and is well into its second month, but the release of comic books moves ever forward!  All the companies have thrown their solicitations for December up onto the web, and as always, we've taken a look through them to give you an idea of what to look for, what to avoid, and what to get excited about.  Hit the jump to see our thoughts.

Ryan L's Thoughts

The Best Things In December

The Defenders

It's spilling out of an event (to some degree), it's written by a guy whose Marvel work continues to unimpress me, all the signs are there for me to eye roll and walk away and yet I refuse. I have some strange form of hopes for this one and it's because I want to believe. It's Dr Strange, it's Iron Fist, and surely it's going to be good. I really want to believe in this book. I can only buy it, find out, and if it's no good then I'm an adult and I'll make the right choice.

Oh, and look at Dr Strange's porn 'stache on the cover. Man, that should fit into the next category instead of up here, ha.

Secret Avengers #20

It's another one-shot style tale from Warren Ellis, which is a good thing in itself, but it rates a mention for December because of the artist listed for the interiors. Here, Ellis is matched with Alex Maleev. I'm pretty pumped for that. How Maleev ever slipped this between Scarlet and Moon Knight is beyond me but I'm still keen for it.

The Worst Things In December

The Rise of the Governor

There's a goddamn Walking Dead book now. I'm expected to fit a few hundred pages into my consuming week just to stay up to date and in touch...ridiculous.

Actually, I'm mildly excited about this. I'm not pumped on having to go elsewhere to catch some of the canon story but I think this experiment will work relatively well.

The true reason this thing gets mentioned in htis section is because of the cover solicited. Man, that's thing is lame.

Image Solicitation Information

Severed is up to issue #5 in December and here's what they have to say, "In 1916, a boy runs away from home in search of his father. But along the way he meets a salesman with sharp teeth and a hunger for flesh." Yeah, I'm pretty sure I learnt all that in the first issue.

Then there's The Walking Dead #92 - "Get ready for some action." Thanks guys, you're all a great big help.

But I actually kid, I don't generally read the issue's solicited text, I already know usually which titles I want to buy.

The Coolest Things In December

Super Dinosaur Deluxe Coloring Book!

C'mon, it's a colouring in book. That's the best idea ever and I love that Kirkman and co have cooked this up and are getting it out just in time for Xmas. If you can't see why this is fun then you are simply far too jaded. There's 64 pages for $4.99. I don't know what price colouring books run these days but this has got to be worth it. I wish every title had one of these this December.

Daredevil Statuette

I still don't understand how Dark Horse is the one to release these Marvel figures but who cares if it means a Yellow costumed DD makes the stands in a tin with a button and a lil booklet. $50 might be a bit steep but this looks pretty damn cool.

Spider-Man The PSAs Trade

There are so many people that don't want to buy this. You know what? Don't buy it, don't read it, don't even look at it. It's not like this book got picked up and some other creative talents missed out on a chance to dazzle us. These things are just sitting around, why not use them. There are plenty of people that will want to genuinely want to own and read this. If you ironically buy this to mock then you're a bit of an idiot. You don't want to see this type of thing and yet you just voted for it, with your wallet. Those people can crawl away and die.

Ken's Thoughts

The Best Things in December

American Vampire Goes Happy Days


Why was Fonzie able to get the jukebox to play after hitting it? Because he was a vampire. American Vampire #22 brings the series into the 50's, and we've got a new character named Travis Kidd showing up as well as the arc being titled "Death Race," I expect copious amounts of fun with a time period that has remained relatively vampire free.

The Worst Things in December

Suicide Squad Squanders Sociopaths

This is the third month in a row where the book's solicits promotes that one of the team will be dying in the issue. Death is already a joke in comics, and there is nothing to make me think the DCnU will buck this trend. Therefore, all this talk about killing characters rings hollow in the modern era and seems to be just reaching for something to say about the book.

X-Sanction Counts, Really!

This is a mini that could have been just fine being about Cable coming back, and not leading into the next "this is super serious guys, we really mean it this will change everything" event. I never really bought how Nate died in Second Coming, and him coming back to the X-Men with Regenesis happening would allow some new ideas. But the solicit basically makes Cable out to be like Bishop trying to change the timeline, and in typical Loeb fashion Cable will probably beat up everyone and knock out Jack Kirby in Heaven followed by some mystery that makes no sense about the upcoming event for 2012.

The Coolest Things in December

X-Club mini 

The X-Club is one of those off the wall concepts that worked, especially because half of the team aren't mutants. Simon Spurrier kind of elaborates on that with this new mini being about the X-Club trying to help the world with science;of course this means mutants are somehow to blame for things going wrong, but a start's a start, and just to have Dr. Nemesis ramble on in his weird manner should be enough to carry the book on its own.



Grant's Thoughts

The Best Things in December

Francavilla on Cap & Bucky

As I'm sure you well know from my reviews, I've been a big fan of Ed Brubaker and company's work on Captain America & Bucky. I've never seriously read any Captain America comics, but this relaunch has been infinitely approachable, and has also been telling a great Bucky Barnes story. While it is a bit of a shame that both Marc Andreyko and Chris Samnee are off the book as of issue #624, I am incredibly excited to know that Francesco Francavilla is stepping in on art. I absolutely love his art. He brings a sense of style that is manages to be very reminiscent of the noir era while also being entirely his own. Can't wait to see him work his magic on this title.

Catwoman's Old Capers

While the current Catwoman title leaves something to be desired, DC will be releasing a rather robust collection of Catwoman tales from the early 2000s. This book, clocking in at over 300 pages, will include a reprint of the phenomenal Darwyn Cooke story "Selina's Big Score" and the first nine issues of the Ed Brubaker - Darwyn Cooke Catwoman ongoing, which was also top notch. As an added bonus, this collection will also have the back-up from Detective Comics that immediately preceded said ongoing. Upon further inspection, it appears that this book is actually coming out in January, but I'm too excited about it to hold off on talking about it for another month.

The Worst Things in December

Too Many Batmen!

I love Batman as much as the next guy (maybe more, depending on who that next guy is), but enough is enough. The New 52 launched with 11 Batman or Bat-family books, which was already too much, but that number will be up to 15 in December with the Huntress and Penguin minis, the return of Neil Adams' Batman: Odyssey, and the Batman Inc. one-shot. And that's not including titles that he'll be appearing in as a team member, like the Justice League books or any of the numerous cameos that I'm sure he'll have elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, I will be buying a number of these titles, but this is just too much of a good thing. As awesome as Batman is (and he's plenty awesome), he doesn't need this dizzying number of books. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

DC Hates Holidays

This is actually a comment about something that's not on the solicitations, because DC doesn't appear to be releasing their annual Holiday Special! I know that the stories in these types of books can vary wildly in quality, but I really like comic book anthology books. Even though every story isn't going to be a winner, it's a great place to showcase up and coming talent and to get plenty of bite size stories. I don't know why DC would skip out on this yearly tradition, but I'll definitely be sadder for it.

The Coolest Things in December

Marvel on the Other Hand...

While DC is dropping the ball when it comes to holiday cheer, it appears as if Marvel is ready and willing to take up the task. Looking at the solicit, it's evident that this is merely a collection of titles that have already (or will have already) appeared digitally, but since I don't read digital comics, that means they'll all be new to me! And while it will only be four stories (so the solicit tells me), one of them is going to be "Wolverine finally learn[ing] the Canadian art of ice hockey". While I'm skeptical that Wolverine wouldn't have encountered hockey before this year, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief to read that story, because it sounds amazing.

Ratfist in Print!

As you may have heard, the talented Doug TenNapel, creator of Earthworm Jim and numerous wonderful graphic novels, started up a web comic earlier this year called Ratfist. While it is a superhero story, it is rather different than most of what you'll find on comic book stands today. A bit of an experiment on TenNapel's part to explore the wide world of webcomics, the story was sometimes a little out there, but there was a lot of emotional honesty - and quite a bit of humour - throughout the tale. The entire story is available for free online at the Ratfist website (and it's quite good), but Image is also releasing a print version this month, along with a few extras. If you don't want to go in sight-unseen, I would recommend giving the comic a gander at TenNapel's site, and if you like what you read, pick up the collection when it drops.

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